A 30-year-old man is serving his first prison term after he and an accomplice, on a hunt for alcohol, menaced a couple and their three children during a home invasion just before Christmas in 2014.

During the sentencing for Emery Xavier Dustyhorn at Regina Provincial Court on Tuesday, Judge Marylynne Beaton referred to victim impact statements from several members of the family, who described how the incident altered their lives and their views on their own safety.

“They did not expect what happened to them,” Beaton said.

Defence lawyer James Struthers said his client essentially beat the odds until just a couple of years ago, having avoided a criminal record despite a turbulent upbringing Struthers described as “nothing less than horrendous.”

Dustyhorn sought treatment for an alcohol problem in the summer of 2014 but fell off the wagon later that year, leading to this offence.

He was drinking with another man on Dec. 20, 2014 when the two — severely intoxicated to the point that Dustyhorn reportedly experienced a blackout — decided they needed more alcohol.

Crown prosecutor Kelly Onyskevitch told the court the pair decided to commit a break and enter to look for booze or money to buy more. They chose the victims’ Rae Street house because it looked “nice,” Onyskevitch said.

The pair, knowing it was occupied at the time, put on masks and knocked on the door.

The youngest member of the family, a 12-year-old girl, answered the door and the two men barged in. Dustyhorn’s accomplice had a knife and court heard he held the blade near the face of a 14-year-old boy, threatening to kill him if the family didn’t stay quiet.

The younger child went upstairs to tell her parents and 16-year-old sister what was happening. When the parents came down, the intruders demanded alcohol or cash; the father said they had neither.

While the intruders went into the kitchen to rifle through the family’s property, one of the family members called 9-1-1. Dustyhorn and his accomplice fled when they heard sirens.

Dustyhorn was arrested nearby and provided police with a statement, admitting to what he did.

Another male, alleged to have been Dustyhorn’s accomplice, was arrested shortly after. Donovan Assiniboine, 20, remains before the court with his charges.

Dustyhorn pleaded guilty to break, enter and commit attempted robbery, a face-masking charge, and a pair of breaches of court conditions. The three-year sentence Dustyhorn received worked out to 28½ months following remand credit.

Beaton acknowledged this offence was out of character for Dustyhorn and noted it sprang from a severe alcohol problem — but she added drunkenness is no excuse.

“You decided to drink and you committed this terrible offence whereby children, in the safety of their own home, saw you and (your accomplice) barge in — one of you having a knife — waving a knife and demanding things,” Beaton said. “They expected to be safe in their home and you took that safety away from them.”